Progress in neutrino oscillation searches and their implications

Neutrino oscillation, in which a given flavor of neutrino transforms into another is a powerful tool for probing small neutrino masses. The intrinsic neutrino properties involved are neutrino mass squared difference Δm ² and the mixing angle in vacuum θ. In this paper I will summarize the progress that we have achieved in our search for neutrino oscillation with special emphasis on the recent results from the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory (SNO) on the measurement of solar neutrino fluxes. I will outline the current bounds on the neutrino masses and mixing parameters and discuss the major physics goals of future neutrino experiments in the context of the present picture.     

Status of the SNO experiment

The Sudbury Neutrino Observatory (SNO) is a 1-kt heavy water Cherenkov detector sensitive to the flavor content of the ⁸B neutrinos originating in the Sun. The analysis of the second phase, in which salt (NaCl) was added to the heavy water in order to increase the cross section for neutrons and therefore enhance the sensitivity to solar neutrinos, is completed. Results from 391 d of data (June 2001 until September 2003) are summarized and constraints on the neutrino mixing parameters are given. The third phase of operation has started in which ³He proportional counters have been deployed inside the D₂O. These neutral-current detectors will perform a systematically independent measurement of the Solar-neutrino flux on a event-by-event basis. SNO finishes data taking at the end of 2006 and the heavy water will be removed. A new experiment using liquid scintillator to measure the pep solar neutrinos and geoneutrinos is proposed and will be described briefly. for the SNO Collaboration The text was submitted by the author in English.     

Status of the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory

Solar neutrinos from the decay of ⁸B have been detected at the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory via the charged-current (CC) and neutral-current (NC) reactions on deuterium and by the elastic scattering (ES) of electrons. The CCr eaction is sensitive exclusively to electron neutrinos, the NCr eaction is sensitive to all neutrino species, and the ES reaction also has a small sensitivity to muon and tau neutrinos. These measurements provided strong evidence that neutrinos change flavor as they propagate from the center of the Sun to the Earth at the 5.3σ level. It will also be shown that a global solar neutrino analysis of matter-enhanced neutrino oscillations of two active flavors strongly favors the large mixing angle solution.     

The NE detector for a long baseline neutrino oscillation experiment

The project of a large underground experiment, N^OE (Neutrino Oscillation Experiment), composed by modules of scintillating fiber calorimeter interleaved with TRD modules, total weight 6.7 ktons, is presented. This apparatus has been optimized for long baseline neutrino oscillation studies, in particular to be sensitive in the region of sin² 2θ and Δm² suggested by the atmospheric neutrino anomaly (fig. 3).     

Measurement of the response of a Ga solar neutrino experiment to 37Ar source

An intense ³⁷Ar source was produced by the (n, α) reaction on ⁴⁰Ca by irradiating 330 kg of calcium oxide in the fast neutron breeder reactor at Zarechny, Russia. The ³⁷Ar was released from the solid target by dissolution in acid, collected from this solution, purified, sealed into a small source, and brought to the Baksan Neutrino Observatory, where it was used to irradiate 13 t of gallium metal in the Russian—American solar neutrino experiment SAGE. Ten exposures of the gallium to the source, whose initial strength was ∼ 409 ± 2kCi, were carried out during the period from April to September 2004. The ⁷¹Ge produced by the reaction ⁷¹Ga(ν _e, e ⁻)⁷¹Ge was extracted, purified, and counted. The measured production rate was 11.0 _−0.9 ^+1.0 (stat.) ±0.6 (syst.) atoms of ⁷¹Ge/d, which is 0.79 _−0.10 ^+0.09 of the theoretically calculated production rate. The text was submitted by the authors in English.     

Artificial neutrino source based on the 37Ar isotope

In April 2004, a neutrino source was produced by irradiating a 330-kg piece of pressed calcium oxide at the fast-neutron reactor BN-600 (Zarechny, Russia) for six months. The ³⁷Ar isotope was obtained via the (n, α) reaction on ⁴⁰Ca, and ³⁷Ar was extracted from an aqueous solution of nitric acid in which the solid target was dissolved. After that, ³⁷Ar was purified and sealed into a capsule. This source was used to measure the neutrino-capture rate in metalic gallium for neutrinos from ³⁷Ar decay, which have an energy close to that of the main line of solar ⁷Be neutrinos (863 keV). The target of the SAGE Gallium-Germanium Neutrino Telescope was irradiated by using this source at the Baksan Neutrino Observatory (Institute for Nuclear Research, Russian Academy of Sciences). The source activity was measured by several methods during its production, in the course of irradiation, and after its completion. The weighted mean of the activity for six measurements was 409 ± 2 kCi at the beginning of irradiation of the gallium target (04:00 Moscow time, 30.04.2004). The scatter in the activity values obtained by different methods does not exceed 5%.     

Space-Time Fluctuations Induced by D-Branes and Their Effects on Neutrino Oscillations

Neutrino oscillations are analyzed in the Ellis-Mavromatos-Nanopoulos-Volkov (ENMV) model, where the quantum gravitational fluctuations of the space-time background are described by virtual D branes. Such fluctuations may induce neutrino oscillations if a violation of the equivalence principle or a tiny violation of the Lorentz invariance is imposed. In this framework, the oscillation length of neutrinos turns out to be proportional to E ^–2 M, where E is the neutrino energy and M is the energy which is the scale characterizing the topological fluctuations in the vacuum.     

Methods for neutral-current neutrino detection in the Sudbury neutrino observatory

The Sudbury Neutrino Observatory will permit a comparison of the rate of neutral-current neutrino interactions to charged-current interactions, which is a test of neutrino mixing and mass. The neutral-current process can be measured by: a) comparison of the rate for electron elastic scattering to the pure charged-current rate on deuterium, b) neutron capture on Cl ions added to the heavy water, and, c) neutron capture in an array of ³He-filled proportional counters. The design and construction of suitable proportional counters are described.     

Modernization of the Carpet-2 array of the Baksan Neutrino Observatory

The state of the art and the project of modernization of the extensive-air-shower array Carpet-2 of the Baksan Neutrino Observatory of the Institute for Nuclear Research, Russian Academy of Sciences are described. The modernized array will allow the performance of detailed study of variations in the cosmic ray intensity, the energy spectra and composition of primary cosmic rays in the energy range 10¹³–10¹⁶ eV, and the anisotropy of primary cosmic rays with energies above 10¹³ eV.     

Hadrons with energies higher than 50 MeV in EASes with <Emphasis Type="Italic">N</Emphasis><Subscript><Emphasis Type="Italic">e</Emphasis></Subscript> = 10<Superscript>5</Superscript>–10<Superscript>7</Superscript>

Characteristics of the hadronic component of EASes with hadron energies E _h > 50 MeV were measured on the CARPET-2 complex shower array at the Baksan Neutrino Observatory of the Institute for Nuclear Research, Russian Academy of Sciences. Hadrons were registered using a 6-NM-64 neutron monitor; the data collection system of this array enables us to register the time intervals between pulses of neutron monitor counters with an error of up to 1 μs. For EASes with N _e = 10⁵–10⁷ whose axes are located in CARPET, we obtain the dependence of the mean neutron multiplicity in the neutron monitor on the total number of charged particles in the EAS.     

Radiation Efficiency and Kinetic Calculations for the Positive Column in Hg/Ar Mixtures II. Impact of Tube Radius and Current Density

In a preceding part of the paper, based on experimental methods and on a corresponding kinetic model, especially the impact of the effective life times of the 6³P₁ and 6¹P₁ Hg resonance levels on the main properties of the low pressure Hg-–Ar positive column has been studied. In the presented second part these investigations, which have been performed under the aspect of their application in fluorescent lamps, will be continued. They are related to the effects of tube radius and discharge current density. New fluorescent lamps have reduced tube radii from R = 18 to 13 mm and compact lamps down to R = 5 mm. Thus it is of interest to study the electron distribution function and main macroscopic properties of such low pressure discharge plasmas, where the latter properties are obtained by adequate energy space averaging. At first, results are reported and discussed which are related to the dependence of main plasma parameters on the Hg partial pressure when reducing the discharge tube radius for constant discharge current i and argon pressure pAr. Starting from the electron distribution function the particle and energy budget will be studied in detail, especially of course the change of the ultraviolet radiation output from both Hg resonance levels 6³P₁ and 6¹P₁ and, in addition, of visible radiation. Then, to understand the effect of the discharge current density, as a representative example two cases with different values of R, i and PAr but with equal current density have been investigated and discussed. Altogether the investigations made will shed light upon the complex relations in the mentioned mixture plasma and give hints to select suitable parameter values which can be useful to improve light sources.     

Direct neutrino mass measurements

The determination of the neutrino rest mass plays an important role at the intersections of cosmology, particle physics and astroparticle physics. This topic is currently being addressed by two complementary approaches in laboratory experiments. Neutrinoless double beta decay experiments probe whether neutrinos are Majorana particles and determine an effective neutrino mass value. Single beta decay experiments such as KATRIN and MARE investigate the spectral shape of β-decay electrons close to their kinematic endpoint in order to determine the neutrino rest mass with a model-independent method. Owing to neutrino flavour mixing, the neutrino mass parameter appears as an average of all neutrino mass eigenstates contributing to the electron neutrino. The KArlsruhe TRItium Neutrino experiment (KATRIN) is currently the experiment in the most advanced status of commissioning. Applying an ultra-luminous molecular windowless gaseous tritium source and an integrating high-resolution spectrometer of MAC-E filter type, it allows β-spectroscopy close to the T ₂ end-point with unprecedented precision and will reach a sensitivity of 200 meV/c ² (90% C.L.) on the neutrino rest mass.     

Accelerator R&;D toward Muon Collider and Neutrino Factory

Over the last decade there has been significant progress in developing the concepts and technologies needed to produce, capture, accelerate and collide high intensity beams of muons. At present, a high-luminosity multi-TeV muon collider presents a viable option for the next generation lepton-lepton collider, which is believed to be needed to fully explore high energy physics in the era following LHC discoveries. Such a collider can offer superb energy resolution, smaller size, and potentially cost and power consumption compared to multi-TeV e ⁺ e ⁻ linear colliders. This article briefly reviews the motivation, design and status of accelerator R&D for Muon Collider and Neutrino Factory.     

Overcoming of the gamow tunneling insufficiencies by maximizing the damp-matching resonant tunneling

The resonant quantum tunneling current through the barrier between two wells may be maximized when the damp (absorption) in one well matches the barrier parameters. The maximum resonant tunneling current is much greater than the conventional expectation by a factor ofθ (1/θ ² is the Gamow tunneling factor). It is shown that with all the established quantum mechanics, very much higher reaction probabilities between nuclei in contrary to the Gamow theory can be explained in agreement with experiments. Particularly, the resonance will select the sub-barrier fusion with a suitable fusion rate which matches the barrier parameters. This selective resonant tunneling model is able to explain both the hot fusion data (e.g. the width of resonance in¹¹B(p,α)2α reaction) and the cold fusion data (e.g. “excess heat” without any commensurate neutron andγ radiation). This work is supported by the State Commission of Science and Technology, the Natural Science Foundation of China (Contract #19645005), and the Fundamental Research Fund of Tsinghua University.     

Measurement of the rate of ν e+d → p+p+e − interactions produced by 8B solar neutrinos at the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory

Solar neutrinos from the decay of ⁸B have been detected at the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory (SNO) via the charged current (CC) reaction on deuterium and by the elastic scattering (ES) of electrons. The CC reaction is sensitive exclusively to ν _e, while the ES reaction also has a small sensitivity to ν _μ and ν _τ. The flux of ν _e from ⁸B decay measured by the CC reaction rate is φ ^CC(ν _e )=[1.75±0.07(stat.) _?0.11 ^+0.12 (syst.)×0.05(theor.)]×10⁶cm^?2s^?1. Assuming no flavor transformation, the flux inferred from the ES reaction rate is φ ^ES(ν _x )=[2.39±0.34(stat.) _?0.14 ^+0.16 (syst.)]×10⁶cm^?2s^?1. Comparison of φ ^CC(ν _e) to the Super-Kamiokande collaboration’s precision value of φ ^ES(ν _x) yields a 3.3σ difference, assuming the systematic uncertainties are normally distributed, providing evidence that there is a nonelectron flavor active neutrino component in the solar flux. The total flux of active ⁸B neutrinos is thus determined to be (5.44±0.99)×10⁶ cm^?2 s^?1, in close agreement with the predictions of solar models.     

New cross-section measurements for the (n, 2n), (n, p), and (n, α) reactions on bromine in the 14 MeV region with detailed uncertainty quantification

Measurement of the cross-sections of the ⁷⁹Br(n, 2n)⁷⁸Br, ⁸¹Br(n, p)^81mSe, ⁸¹Br(n, α)⁷⁸As, and ⁷⁹Br(n, α)⁷⁶As reactions was performed at specific neutron energies, precisely, 13.5±0.2, 14.1±0.2, 14.4±0.2, and 14.8±0.2 MeV, relative to the standard ⁹³Nb(n, 2n)^92mNb and ²⁷Al(n, α)²⁴Na reference reactions using offline γ-ray spectrometry and neutron activation. Monoenergetic neutrons were generated at the China Academy of Engineering Physics via a ³H(d, n)⁴He reaction using the K-400 Neutron Generator equipped with a solid ³H-Ti based target. The activity of the reaction produce was obtained using a high-purity germanium detector. The cross-sections of the (n, 2n), (n, p), and (n, α) reactions on the bromine isotopes were measured in the 13–15 MeV neutron energy range. The covariance analysis approach was employed for a thorough inspection of any uncertainties within the measured cross-section data. A discussion and comparison of the observed outcome were carried out with previously published data, especially with the results of the JENDL-4.0, JEFF-3.3, TENDL-2019, and ENDF/B-VIII.0 data libraries, along with the theoretical excitation function curve derived by employing the TALYS-1.95 program. Improved cross-section restrictions for the investigated processes in the 13–15 MeV neutron energy range will be obtained using the current findings, which will help to raise the caliber of associated databases. Furthermore, the parameters of relevant nuclear reaction models can be verified using this data.     

Overview on neutrinos and the Daya Bay experiment

Neutrinos are elementary particles in the Standard Model. Neutrino oscillation is a quantum mechanical phenomenon beyond the Standard Model. Neutrino oscillation can be described by two independent mass-squared differences Δm ₂₁ ² , Δm ₃₁ ² (or Δm ₃₂ ² ) and a 3 × 3 unitary matrix, containing three mixing angles θ ₁₂, θ ₂₃, θ ₁₃, and one charge-parity (CP) phase. θ ₁₂ is about 34° and determined by solar neutrino experiments and the reactor neutrino experiment KamLAND. θ ₂₃ is about 45° and determined by atmospheric neutrino experiments and accelerator neutrino experiments. θ ₁₃ can be measured by either accelerator or reactor neutrino experiments. On Mar. 8, 2012, the Daya Bay Reactor Neutrino Experiment reported the first observation of non-zero θ ₁₃ with 5.2 standard deviations. In June, with 2.5× previous data, Daya Bay improved the measurement of sin²2θ ₁₃ = 0.089 ± 0.010(stat) ± 0.005(syst).     

Results of a search for 2β decay of 136Xe with high-pressure copper proportional counters in Baksan Neutrino Observatory

A search for 2β decay of ¹³⁶Xe with two high-pressure copper proportional counters was carried out in the Baksan Neutrino Observatory. The experiment is based on comparison of spectra measured with natural and enriched xenon. No evidence was found for 2β(2ν) and 2β(0ν) decay. The decay half-life limit based on data measured for 8000 h is T _1/2 ≥ 8.5 × 10²¹ yr for 2ν mode and T _1/2 ≥ 3.1 × 10²³ yr for 0ν mode (90% C.L.). The text was submitted by the authors in English.     

Cumulative fission yield measurements with 14.7 MeV neutrons on 238U

The fission yield data in the 14 MeV energy neutron induced fission of ²³⁸U play an important role in decay heat calculations and generation-IV reactor designs. In order to accurately measure fission product yields (FPYs) of ²³⁸U induced by 14 MeV neutrons, the cumulative yields of fission products ranging from ⁹²Sr to ¹⁴⁷Nd in the ²³⁸U(n, f) reaction with a 14.7 MeV neutron were determined using an off-line γ-ray spectrometric technique. The 14.7 MeV quasi-monoenergetic neutron beam was provided by the K-400 D-T neutron generator at China Academy of Engineering Physics (CAEP). Fission products were measured by a low background high purity germanium gamma spectrometer. The neutron flux was obtained from the ⁹³Nb (n, 2n)^92mNb reaction, and the mean neutron energy was calculated using the cross-section ratios for the ⁹⁰Zr(n, 2n)⁸⁹Zr and ⁹³Nb(n, 2n)^92mNb reactions. With a series of corrections, high precision cumulative yields of 20 fission products were obtained. Our FPYs for the ²³⁸U(n, f) reaction at 14.7 MeV were compared with the existing experimental nuclear reaction data and evaluated nuclear data, respectively. The results will be helpful in the design of a generation-IV reactor and the construction of evaluated fission yield databases.